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easy like sunday mornin’

submitted by blackpony

This morning's manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers has left many of us glued to our screens. If you find yourself in need of a little mental/emotional/psychological vacation from it all, here's a live feed of this morning's spacewalk outside the ISS.

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Redditor PGERMS recreated the soundtrack of this soap opera with a cat.

A girl I like said the music in her favorite soap opera is so bad, that her cat could have written it. I decided to test this theory, with great success.

via reddit, Nerdcore

Map of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (1888)

Mayaguez, Puerto Rico: Map by Federico Drouyn in 1888. Map of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Date: 1888 Author: Federico Drouyn Dwnld: Full Size (11.8mb) Print Availability: See our Prints Page for more details pff This map isn't part of any series, but we have other featured maps that you might want to check out. How much do I love this map of Mayagüez [gmap], Puerto Rico? Well, a tremendous amount. I like...

the BIG Map Blog - Interesting maps, historical maps, BIG maps.

Hidden Valley Ranch marketing dept. is probably not pleased about this.

FBI

Original Source

• Don’t go to work.
• The MBTA system is shut down, so if you’re not at home, find friends nearby and stay with them.
•  Don’t answer the door unless it’s police or a loved one.
• Stay home, stay safe, stay strong. We’re with you.

My beloved nephew on right, djohar tsarnaev on left, happy cambridge Rindge and Latin grads.heartbreaking pic.twitter.com/wCuNo8aApQ

Reddit's initial hunt to find the Boston bombers devolved rapidly into a sort of "racist Where's Wally", profiling – racially and otherwise – scores of innocent people.

Update, 20 April: The two suspects for the bombing have been identified as Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The former was killed in a gunfight with police in the early hours of 19 April, while the latter was arrested and is now in custody. Sunil Tripathi remains missing.

 

Holy crap. One of the suspects being named on the scanner, is one of the names Reddit came up with early this morning.

— Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) April 19, 2013

 

 

Wow Reddit was right about the missing Brown student per the police scanner. Suspect identified as Sunil Tripathi.

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) April 19, 2013

 

 

So this kinda changes up the smug opining about a Reddit "witch hunt," hm?

— dansinker (@dansinker) April 19, 2013

 

 

IF it is the Brown student in custody and IF he was one of the Marathon Bombers, Reddit had it YESTERDAY and the whole world has changed.

— Geoff LaTulippe (@DrGMLaTulippe) April 19, 2013

 

On 16 March, Sunil Tripathi, a student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, went missing, leaving behind a cryptic note. His whereabouts are still unknown, but for a brief moment, it looked like he was involved in far bigger things. His name turned up on the Boston Police Department's scanner early this morning, suddenly and without warning. We now know that BPD was mistaken: according to NBC and the Associated Press, the suspects are migrants from an area of Russia near Chechnya. But that didn't stop a lot of people getting very excited.

The BPD was chasing two men who had held up a 7/11, shot and killed a police officer, and then headed west, apparently hurling explosives out of the window of the stolen SUV they were driving. As the chase continued, it seemed more and more likely that the men must be related to the Boston Marathon bombing, and at 7:20am BST the Boston Globe confirmed it: one suspect had been taken into custody. That man, they now report, is dead. The second remains at large.

But it's not quite true to say that Sunil Tripathi's name first came up in this startlingly new context on the BPD scanner. Because Reddit "called it" first.

Late last night, Redditor pizzatime linked to reports of Tripathi's disappearance, asking "Is missing student Sunil Tripathi Marathon Bomber #2?". At that time, the FBI had just released photos of two suspects, neither of whom had appeared on any of Reddit's crowdsourced hunts for the bomber. But pizzatime noticed that one of them bore a resemblance to Tripathi, and posted accordingly.

The worst thing is that through sheer force of weight whoever the bomber was will probably have been highlighted by someone on Reddit.

— Alex Hern (@alexhern) April 17, 2013

 

 

So we’ll be subjected to endless “how Reddit found the bomber before the police” headlines when all they did was libel hundreds of people.

— Alex Hern (@alexhern) April 17, 2013

 

Reddit had set themselves the task of finding a needle in a haystack, but failed to take account of the fact that they had no way to tell for certain whether they'd found a needle or a needle-like piece of hay. The initial hunt to find the bombers devolved rapidly into a sort of "racist Where's Wally", profiling – racially and otherwise – scores of innocent people.

It's hard to be certain of the provenance, but that crowdsourcing (along with 4Chan's who did much the same thing) certainly led to images stripped of their context being passed around as though they were confirmed, and probably had a hand in the New York Post smearing two innocent men on their front page. And now it looks like it smeared Tripathi, too.

But really, the crowdsourced hunt for the bomber should be split into two acts. The first, finding suspicious-looking people in photos of the marathon, was always going to end in innocents' reputations being destroyed. With no method of confirmation, few feet on the ground and a wealth of opportunity for false positives, Reddit was abysmally suited for the task, and it failed abjectly.

But once the photos of the suspects were released, it had more chance of being useful. "Do you know this man?" is the archetypal example crowdsourcing. Wanted posters have been used for over 130 years, and we've got a pretty good hang on how they work by now: you need to find someone, so you show their face to as many people as possible. Tripathi looked like the second bomber, and so his name was linked. But then Reddit took it further.

The crowdsourcing part of wanted posters is about making sure as many people as possible see the picture. It is emphatically not about making sure any allegations resulting from the picture are made public. That's not crowdsourcing, it's just speculating; there is little advantage in getting the crowd involved at that point, and the major downside that someone's life might be ruined based on who they look like.

Tripathi wasn't the bomber. He just looked like him. How his name ended up with the Boston Police Department remains unclear, but it is clear that he is not a suspect. Where he is remains an open question, but maybe one Reddit should steer clear of. The world hasn't changed that much.

curseofthejaguar:

That whole situation at Bill and Fleur’s wedding could have been solved, or even avoided. Come on, Hermione, aren’t you supposed to be a genius?

Oh god there’s so many he who must not be namedses, and oh god the smell. Will someone light a match? Jesus does this guy have no nose? Wash yourself you snake bastard.

Wow It’s mom, but I’m sleepy 

Has anyone verified that the Tamerlan Tsarnaev Golden Gloves boxer is the same man as suspect? http://t.co/IdV3KopYle

Originally from Chechnya, but living in the United States since five years, Tamerlan says: "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."

All service to/from Boston South Station is currently suspended. Currently, service is running to Worcester and Framingham (please note that MBTA service is not operating).  Please understand cancellations to/from Worcester and Framingham may occur last minute due to situations beyond our control.  All service to/from Boston South Station is currently suspended.

“Please note: I’m at a live, chaotic, rapidly changing scene. Details evolving.”

-

Twitter / sethmnookin: Please note: I’m at a live, …

yes, that Seth Mnookin is live on the scene of the Watertown shootout

Apr 18th 2013 By: Andy Khouri

Longtime ComicsAlliance favorites for their work on books like Casanova, The Nightly News, Fantastic Four, Immortal Iron Fist, The Manhattan Projects, Hawkeye and more, comics writers Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman have confirmed they will be contributing two episodes to the second season of Da Vinci's Demons. A Starz network original series created by David S. Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight film trilogy), Da Vinci's Demons is a historical fantasy saga full of mystery and intrigue that imagines the early life of artist, inventor and, in the series, romantic adventurer Leonardo da Vinci.

"One of the best parts of this job is that you occasionally get to call up people you admire out of the blue and ask them if they want to play in your sandbox. Sometimes, they say 'yes,'" wrote Goyer on his website.

Appropriately both Fraction and Hickman are known for works in which they put forth some fantastical alternatives to what we know about various inventors and other geniuses of human history. In his and Steven Sanders' 2006 graphic novel The Five Fists of Science, Fraction imagined a kind of sinister pact between Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain and Bertha von Suttner to trick the world into ending war.

Reached for comment, Fraction told CA, "Da Vinci's Demons has everything I look for in a show as a viewer, from the vision of the creator to the caliber of writers to the narrative structure, intrigue, blood, sex, carnage, fun, and all points in-between. So as a writer to be asked by David to play in his sandbox is an amazing opportunity. Besides, Leonardo was always my second-favorite ninja turtle and I look forward to exploring his mythos with all of you."

Hickman agreed, writing via email, "I, obviously, echo everything Matt has said. When David let me read the first couple of scripts, I knew five pages into the pilot that they were on to something. So, I'm just incredibly honored that they extended the opportunity to come in and write for the show. It's fun, ambitious, and irreverent in all the right ways. Check it out if you get a chance."

Longtime Hickman readers will remember that Leonardo da Vinci was actually a character in his and Dustin Weaver's S.H.I.E.L.D. for Marvel Comics, also a historical fantasy dealing with real-life figures in epic struggles with secret societies of the distant past -- although with a distinctly science fiction/superhero angle, and not to be confused with the Goyer series.

Only one episode of Da Vinci's Demons has aired so far, and it can be watched for free on the show's official site. Season two of Da Vinci's Demons is expected to begin broadcasting in 2014.

Apr 18th 2013 By: Andy Khouri

This is the check that Detective Comics, Inc. co-owner Jack Liebowitz wrote young comic book creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 in exchange for the exclusive rights to a comic book superhero they'd recently created called Superman. The $130 amount, as specified in the memo portion of the check, was split between Siegel and Shuster, whose names were misspelled.

In the years subsequent to cashing the check, Siegel and Shuster would attempt to regain via the courts some kind of ownership of Superman, creator credit and a more equitable share in the enormous profits generated by Superman comic books as well as DC's exploitation of the character in the broader media marketplace. The pair were at first unsuccessful and found themselves fired and unrecognized for their creation, and consequently destitute (Shuster is alleged in comics historian Craig Yoe's book, Secret Identity, to have illustrated a series of underground fetish comics just to make ends meet). Additional lawsuits, settlements and copyright extensions followed in the decades hence. Those proceedings were protracted and arcane, but with the help of some peers in the comic book industry, notably Neal Adams, Siegel and Shuster's names were eventually restored to the credits pages of all Superman comics and media in the 1970s, and the pair secured a pension. Siegel's heirs were briefly successful in recapturing half of the copyright to Superman in 2008, but that decision was reversed by a federal court of appeals which granted DC Comics parent Warner Bros. a decisive and presumably final victory in the Superman ownership saga, leaving the Siegel heirs with a multimillion dollar payout per the terms of an earlier agreement.

As of April 2013, the 75th anniversary of Superman's first appearance in Action Comics #1, new DC Comics publications featuring Superman have come with the credit, "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family."

In 2012 the cancelled $130 check sold at auction for $160,000.

Because tributes to 10-year-old musicals and resorting to the Jaws music to play off revered award winners went so well the first time, The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences is bringing back this year’s producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, to guide next year’s ceremony. The Los Angeles Times says that the duo was re-hired by the academy’s president with the full support of the group’s board, all of who apparently think Seth MacFarlane is hilarious.

Though the award show’s ratings were up a tinge this year, the way the ceremony played out drew the ire of some viewers and participants alike, as winners—including Best Picture director Ben Affleck—were quickly played off, lest MacFarlane lose another chance to sing and dance. Members of the academy also complained that Zadan and Meron included an extended homage to Chicago, which they just happened ...

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The force will be with movie audiences in the summers of 2015, 2017, and 2019. That’s when Disney says it’ll put out the next three Star Wars movies, according to studio chief Alan Horn. Horn made the declaration during his presentation at CinemaCon, where he also confirmed that Disney and LucasFilm are working on other films related to Star Wars characters, but that aren’t actually episodes in the grand saga. So, basically, get ready for a Boba Fett origin story and a Smurfs-style CGI flick about those adorable Ewoks.

As previously reported, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII and Michael Arndt—not Patton Oswalt, unfortunately—will write the script.

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In yet another instance of real life cruelly intruding on escapist TV entertainment, ABC has announced that it’s pulling “Still,” a bomb-themed episode of the Nathan Fillion comedy-mystery series Castle, which was scheduled to air next Monday. The change comes one day after Fox announced that it was pulling an episode of Family Guy from its schedule in the wake of the bomb attacks at Monday’s Boston marathon.

“Still” has been rescheduled for broadcast on April 29. In its place, ABC will run a different new episode, featuring guest star Ioan Gruffudd. Castle co-star Stana Katic has taken to Twitter to explain that the switch was made “out of respect” and to ask fans for their indulgence regarding any resulting errors in the series’ chronology.

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Beloved sketching and yelling game Win, Lose, Or Draw is coming back to TV. The Disney Channel is reviving the Burt Reynolds-created show for the Draw Something crowd. The show should pop up on the network in July, will feature Disney Channel celebrity guests, kid contestants, and “interactive multi-touch screen displays” instead of giant notepads on easels. Cupcake Wars’ Justin Willman will host.

This actually isn’t the first time an iteration of Win, Lose, Or Draw has been on the Disney Channel. Teen Win, Lose, Or Draw ran on the network from 1989 to 1992 and was hosted by Marc Price, who’s perhaps best known for playing Skippy on Family Ties.

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“Gunshots were reported near Building 32 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus Thursday night, according to the university. Shots were registered at 10:48 p.m. ET, and the situation remained “active and extremely dangerous,” according to MIT’s emergency website. Responding agencies were investigating the active shooter incident. Follow @NBCNewsUS NBC affiliate WHDH said a search for the gunman was underway. An MIT police office had suffered life-threatening injuries and is now being treated at the hospital, Cambridge, Mass., police told WHDH. The Building 32 area was cordoned off. The university warned students and staff to “stay clear of area until further notice.” Massachusetts State Police was assisting Cambridge and MIT police in the investigation. “No arrest has been made and the search for a suspect or suspects is ongoing,” read a statement from the Massachusetts State Police. This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.”

- ‘Extremely dangerous’: Gunshots reported on MIT campus - U.S. News

By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 19, 2013 at 1:02a

After being outbid by an unidentified party, mobile and desktop app developer teamPixel is refunding money to those who backed its Kickstarter campaign to purchase the Homeworld IP from THQ.

The studio had hoped to develop Homeworld 3 for Windows PC, Mac and Linux, and Homeworld Touch for iOS and Android, if the intellectual propert was secured.

"Homeworld will escape the THQ bankruptcy to a new home, however, that home will not be with teamPixel, LLC," the Kickstarter update reads. "The auction for the Homeworld license ended April 15, 2013, and while we reached qualified bidder status for the bankruptcy auction, we were unable to raise the necessary funds to remain competitive against the other parties at the auction."

teamPixel did not divulge who the new owner was, but it suspects the information will be revealed in mid-May once the sale is finalized.

The development team will go ahead and develop their own Homeworld-inspired space RTS with original IP. Backers of the Save the Homeworld campaign will be given special credit in the new game as a thanks. Contributors to the Kickstarter can track their refund via a website set up teamPixel.

In January, Relic Entertainment was bought by Sega for $26.6 million during the auction to liquidate THQ's assets; however, the IP for Relic's franchise Homeworld was not included in the list of acquisitions.

teamPixel set up an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign that same day to raise money to secure the IP, and to fund the development of Homeworld 3 and Homeworld Touch if successful. The campaign raised $13,675 of the $50,000 goal.

• Source
• teamPixel (Kickstarter)

“One Marathon bombing suspect has been caught, and another is on the loose in Watertown after a firefight with police, officials said.”

-

The Boston Globe (BostonGlobe) on Twitter

fuck shit fuck fuck shit

gale the simple writes "Mike Rodgers made a minor splash Tuesday when he decided to liken CISPA opponents to 14-year-old basement dwellers. The EFF, naturally, picked up on this generalization and asked everyone to let the representative know that it is not just the 14-year-olds that care about privacy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

itwbennett writes "There are rumblings around this week's OpenStack conference that companies are moving away from AWS, ready to ditch their training wheels and build their own private clouds. Inbound marketing services company HubSpot is the latest to announce that it's shifting workloads off AWS, citing problems with 'zombie servers,' unused servers that the company was paying for. Others that are leaving point to 'business issues,' like tightening the reins on developers who turned to the cloud without permission."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.